CANNABIS: A CULTURAL PHENOMENON WITHIN STUDENT PRACTICE

‘’Cannabis is a genus with three species of flower plants belonging to the

Cannabaceae family, the most famous species is Cannabis sativa, from which hashish and
marijuana are produced, followed by Cannabis Indica and Cannabis Ruderalis, the latter with
smaller amounts THC, which is grown in the countries of China and Canada for the
production of hemp, used in the textile industry.’’

Taken from: es.wikipedia.org

While it is a true, the percentage about the psychoactive substances used by young
people have increased throughout these last years, seen from a global perspective to a regional
approach, the fact that young people (especially middle school students) try not only alcohol
but cannabis is a phenomenon that has become into an element almost cultural within the
students doing.

According to the World Drug Report of the United Nations Office on Drugs and
Crime '' UNODC '', the significant increase in deaths due to drug use is highlighted, some
275,000,000 people worldwide, about 5.6% of the world's population used drugs on at least
one occasion in 2016 and about 31,000,000 who used drugs suffer from disorders derived
from them. From the national level, it is affirmed that one in six young people between the
age of 12 and 18 has tried the drugs, this is what the data contained in the latest report on the
consumption of psychoactive substances in school population in Colombia reveal by
Ministries of Justice and Health, also mentioning that while the consumption of alcohol and
tobacco in children and adolescents fell, that of illegal substances, including ecstasy and
cocaine, is increasing steadily.

It is worth mentioning that among the seven regions of Colombia that remain on high
alert because the consumption rate (at least once in a lifetime) exceeds 20 percent, the Cesar
region is absent, however, as is the case with all the Colombian population that consumes
drugs, marijuana is by far the most used illegal substance: those who claimed to have smoked
it in the last year went from 6.9% in 2011 to 7.8% in the new sample. The average age of
entry to that consumption is 14 years and exposure increases as young people grow.

On the other hand, one of the most worrying data of the study is access to substances,
both legal and illegal. 70.2% of the students said that it is easy for them to buy alcohol,
despite the fact that the law expressly prohibits the sale to minors, marijuana tops the list of
the easiest to get for children, with 37.3%; followed by bazooka with 12.4%, cocaine with
12%, inhalants with 8.5%, and ecstasy, with 7%

In this way, although some schools or universities try to solve this fact, reality is other.
But the main problem is not this, since most of the students who try or consume
hallucinogenic substances do not know how these elements affect their body, especially
cognitively.

Cannabis is a plant that has been used over time for different functions, among which
its use in medical treatments is highlighted due to its psychoactive cannabinoid content
(tetrahydrocannabinol), which is credited as the cause of the psychoactive effect of marijuana,
the latter being the cause that today is crossed out by united nations since 1961 and banned in
most countries worldwide, hindering its study. However, there are different organizations that
highlight the use of cannabis for the treatment of: glaucoma, epileptic crisis, cancer,
fibromyalgia, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, among others, but talking about a way to
treat a condition is different from talking about a way to recreate, and the second is the main
use that students give to this substance, and like most of the foreign products that enter the
body, marijuana has a series of negative effects especially at the brain level, among which are:
having negative effects on cognitive function and on concentration and short and medium
term memory, cause excessive emotions, increase depression or agitation in predisposed
consumers and lead to a risk of psychiatric disorders.

The previous elements that can be reflected by Paulina Beverido Sustaeta (2010), who
through of her investigation project titled ‘’Consumo de mariguana y sus efectos en la salud
mental y las habilidades cognitivas necesarias para el aprendizaje’’ she describes the way in
which the THC of marijuana affects the brain and therefore how it can be reflected in the
student. She shows a general explanation of the way in which cannabis affects the neural
network of the human brain, then points out a series of consequences that the active
consumption of this substance brings, pointing out initially the deficiency of some brain
functions, highlighting: the processing of information, memory, thought and concentration. In
a timely manner she lists a series of cognitive level repercussions measured in short and long
term periods, identifying the deterioration of short-term memory (memory of recent events),
difficulty in learning processes and information retention, particularly in very complex tasks;
triggering in the long term low educational results and work performance and a decrease in
life satisfaction.
 It is worth mentioning that, in the second paragraph of the third section `` Effects of
the consumption of marijuana on cognitive functioning '' according to a research carried out in
Chile, in which medical study tools were used that allowed to analyze in real time the brain
from a group of active and non-active Cannabis consumers, it was scientifically proven that in
the group of habitual marijuana consumers (essentially young) there were harmful effects on
immediate memory, attention-concentration and execution strategies, with statistically
significant differences regarding to the control group (those not consumers).

In this order of ideas, is axiomatic to mention that this unlawful practice directly
affects the quality of teaching-learning processes inside and outside the classroom, not only
those who carry it out voluntarily, but also those who expose themselves to inhaling the
residues of this activity, taking into account that the smoke spreads through the air turning
people around it into indirect consumers. On the other hand, it is worth noting that although
the use of this is illegal in Colombia (at least recreational use), young people use it more
every day, in this way to face this situation, beyond limiting the implementation, the most
appropriate is to present all these facts by way of awareness, in the same way or more than
what has been done with the consumption of alcohol and tobacco, which although they are
labeled as llegal, according to some researchers, their consumption is worse for the person in
compared to cannabis.
Bibliography:

 es.wikipedia.org. Cannabis (género). Taken from:

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannabis_(g%C3%A9nero)
 es.wikipedia.org. Tetrahidrocannabinol. Taken from:
https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metabolito_secundario
 Fundación CANNA. Cáñamo vs Marihuana. Taken from:
https://www.fundacion-canna.es/canamo-vs-marihuana
 es.wikipedia.org. Efectos del cannabis sobre la salud. Taken from:
https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Efectos_del_cannabis_sobre_la_salud
 CUERPOMENTE. Cannabis medicinal: todas las propiedades confirmadas.
Taken from: https://www.cuerpomente.com/salud-natural/terapias-
naturales/cannabis-medicinal-cancer-beneficios_1133
 infobae. Cuáles son los efectos en la salud del uso del cannabis medicinal.
Taken from: https://www.infobae.com/salud/2017/03/29/cuales-son-los-
efectos-en-la-salud-del-uso-del-cannabis-medicinal/
 CAMEDA – Cannabis Medicinal Argentina. La Planta de Cannabis. Taken
from: http://cannabismedicinal.com.ar/cannabis-medicinal/cultivos1/147-
planta-cannabis
 Paulina Beverido Sustaeta. Consumo de mariguana y sus efectos en la salud
mental y las habilidades cognitivas necesarias para el aprendizaje. Instituto de
Ciencias de la Salud de la Universidad Veracruzana. 2010.
 CNNespanol. ¿Qué es peor: la marihuana o el alcohol? Taken from:
https://cnnespanol.cnn.com/2016/06/07/que-es-peor-la-marihuana-o-el-alcohol/